The new and distinct Hosta plant, hereinafter also referred to as ‘Beckoning’ and “the plant” is a new and distinct cultivar of hosta. It was found by Timothy Saville in 1998 as an un-induced whole plant sport of the Hosta cultivar ‘Blue Angel’ (not patented) in a now defunct nursery in Cheshire, England. The plant has been successfully propagated by division and tissue culture methods at a perennial plant nursery in Zeeland, Mich. and found to produce identical plants that maintain the unique characteristics of the original plant. The plant is stable and reproduces true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.
Hosta ‘Beckoning’ differs from its parent sport, ‘Blue Angel’, all other known sports of ‘Blue Angel’ as well as all other hostas known to the applicant, in that the plant is variegated with a lutescent gold center emerging in the spring as nearly solid colored and gradually developing the yellow center with warmer temperatures. Hosta ‘Blue Angel’ also has some other sports including: ‘Earth Angel’ (not patented), ‘Guardian Angel’ (not patented), and ‘Fallen Angel’ (not patented). ‘Beckoning’ has a blue-green margin with a gold center of each leaf. Hosta ‘Guardian Angel’ has a blue green margin but the center is a misted whitish-green that tends to become all green in the heat of the summer. ‘Fallen Angel’ has the same whitish-green misting as ‘Guardian Angel’ through the entire leaf and does not have the solid blue-green margin. ‘Earth Angel’ has a creamy-yellow margin that is lighter than the center of ‘Beckoning’, and has the same blue-green in the center that ‘Beckoning’ has on the margin. The most similar known hosta cultivars in color are ‘June’ (not patented) and ‘Paul's Glory’ (not patented). ‘June’ grown in the shade has a similar color pattern as ‘Beckoning’ grown in the sun, but the new plant is between two and three times the size of ‘June’ in habit, clump height and width as well as leaf size. Hosta ‘Paul's Glory’ is slightly smaller in size of leaf and clump dimensions, and similar in colors, but the margin is less distinct, or more defused between the margin and center of the leaf on ‘Paul's Glory’ and more distinctly featured or jetting on ‘Beckoning’.